Nonprofits in Palm Beach County help former foster kids live on their own

Nonprofits in Palm Beach County help former foster kids live on their
own

By Shana Gruskin Staff Writer Posted February 21 2005

Amy Scranton remembers the days when she'd start each morning with a
knot in her stomach.

"I'd wake up [and] I'm wondering, `What's going to happen today? Will
I be homeless today? Will I be able to eat today?'"

A ward of the state on and off since childhood, Scranton found herself
on her own, and painfully unprepared for it, at 18. With no high
school diploma and no stable family, Scranton scraped by on $6.50 an
hour as a parking attendant, faced an $800 credit card debt and
crashed with a friend who wasn't any better off than she.

Yet despite Florida's attempt in 2002 to create a safety net for
former foster children such as Scranton, advocates remain frustrated
with the state's effort. In Palm Beach County, that dissatisfaction
has led nonprofit child-welfare providers to take matters into their
own hands.

"... These are our kids and we're going to do what's in their best
interest," said Don Stewart, executive director of The Haven, a
48-bed group home for boys. "We don't have time to wait for the
legislation to change. The days are just ticking by until another
turns
18."

While it has good intentions, advocates say, the Road to Independence
Act has been crippled by limited resources and riddled with ambiguous
rules that exclude some youth from getting aid while giving money to
others who are ineligible.

Administrative flaws, meanwhile, have allowed about 250 youths to get
more money than they were supposed to -- a total of $542,000 this
year, according to a report released last week by Florida's Auditor
General. The analysis also found that the $16.4 million program for
current and former foster children faces a deficit of between $1.4
million and $3 million. The program serves about 5,300 foster children
13-17 and an additional 1,800 former foster youth 18-22.

Representatives for the state Department of Children & Families said
they are reviewing the program's rules and financial health. But local
providers are unwilling to wait for help from Tallahassee.

Instead, The Haven now employs two full-time staff members devoted to
preparing its boys for life after foster care, Stewart said.

He and other providers across the county want to ensure former foster
youth have a safe, affordable place to live, job training or access to
higher education and a mentor to help them navigate the rough waters
of young adulthood.

It's a game plan Child & Family Connections, the nonprofit agency that
runs foster care services in Palm Beach County, encourages. The
agency, with money from the state, spends about $600,000 a year to
prepare foster children for adulthood and help those who have turned
18.

Sixty-three former foster children receive aid through the Road to
Independence program while they attend school or receive vocational
training. An additional 44 or so are expected to turn 18 this year.
Younger teens participate in classes that teach everything from good
study habits to banking.

"We've been talking to providers that we think have an interest in it,
knowing it's going to take both private and public money to make it
work," Bob Barker, Child & Family Connections' executive director,
said of independent living issues. "For these kids to succeed, they
need job training, they need housing. The system is not going to be
the only answer."

Elizabeth Brown, executive director of Turtle Nest Village -- which
already provides post-foster care services using private money to
16 young adults -- said she's working with housing specialists to
establish 50 housing units in costly Palm Beach County for these
youths. She has kicked off a $2 million fund-raising campaign to make
it happen.

"When a kid turns 18 in Palm Beach County..., I want to know they have
a place to go," Brown said. "... They're America's orphans. They're
coming out orphans into the world."

Charles Bender, executive director of Place of Hope, a residential
program that houses 24 foster children, said he plans to set aside a
small cottage on his facility's Palm Beach Gardens campus for the
first teen in his program to turn 18 later this year. She'll have to
pay some rent and utilities, but the teen will continue to get
financial and emotional support until she's ready to venture out on
her own.

"We're going to know if her lights are shut off. We're going to know
if her water gets shut off. We're going to know if she doesn't pay her
rent on time," Bender said.

Dan Brannen, president of Kids@Home, said his nonprofit life-skills
program mentors 50 young adults in Palm Beach and Broward counties.
His program also has educated about 125 foster youth since August on
the finer points of grown-up life with classes on everything from
opening a checking account to paying rent.

But as Brannen and the others say, and Scranton confirms, life isn't
learned by watching a video or taking a field trip. It takes years of
subtle education, the kind most kids absorb growing up in healthy
households where bills are paid and beds are made.

Before leaving foster care at 18, Scranton spent a year in a program
that taught independent living skills such as grocery shopping. But,
she said, it simply wasn't enough to fill the void left by neglectful
parents and an insufficient child-welfare system. Once on her own,
Scranton was soon teetering on the edge of homelessness.

"When you turn 18, that doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're
doing," said the now 22-year-old from West Palm Beach.

A child-welfare counselor and Turtle Nest's Brown took her under their
wings. They helped her find a place to live, set her up with a mentor
and pushed her to get her high school diploma and go to college.

"Even when I didn't want to be bothered, they'd tell me, `Amy do this,
do that.'" Today, Scranton, who is studying accounting at Palm Beach
Community College while working as a receptionist at a company that
installs blinds, considers herself one of the lucky ones. When she
wakes up in the morning -- and feels the baby kick inside her and sees
her husband lying next to her and hears her sister and her best friend
rustling around just a few rooms away -- she knows she's finally home.
"I've been blessed to have good people around me."
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